China officials told not to smoke in publicBeijing (AFP) Dec 31, 2013 -
China has instructed officials not to smoke in public places in a rare, high-profile anti-smoking signal from authorities in the world's biggest tobacco market.

Government officials and cadres at all levels must not smoke in public venues including schools, hospitals, sports and cultural centres and public transportation vehicles and vessels, according to a circular from the party's central committee and the State Council, or the cabinet.

China's health authorities already banned people from lighting up in indoor public places in 2011, although the rule is not seriously enforced or obeyed in a country that has more than 300 million smokers.

Smoking and tobacco-made products are also prohibited during any official activities, the statement said, such as meetings and government-sponsored forums.

No public funds should be used to pay for tobacco-related consumption, it added.

The Sunday announcement came amid a sweeping and widely-publicised government crackdown on corruption, excessive spending and extravagance under China's President Xi Jinping, who came into power a little over a year ago.

Cigarettes are one of the most popular gifts for networking and getting business done in China, partly as they are small in size and so draw little attention from others.

In 2009, a property official in the eastern city of Nanjing was sentenced to 11 years in jail for taking bribes after Internet users identified him as having cigarettes that sold for as much as 150 yuan ($25) a pack.

Earlier this month, authorities also ordered that shark fins, bird nests and wild animal products -- all favourite offerings in Chinese tradition to show off wealth and give a premium feel -- must be banned from official reception dinners.

But critics say no systemic reforms have been introduced to increase transparency to help fight endemic graft.

Officials in a Chinese village dug up and set fire to a man's corpse after his family ignored their demand that he be cremated rather than buried, state media reported Tuesday.

The case is an extreme example of the country's unevenly-enforced funeral policy, which tries to encourage cremation rather than interment given the wide range of alternative uses for land.

But traditional Chinese belief holds that an intact corpse buried in the earth allows the dead person's soul to live in peace. Confucian edicts say that ensuring one's body, hair and skin are not damaged is the most basic way to show respect to one's parents since they are gifts from them.

Cheng Chaomu, an 83-year-old peasant, was buried at Qinfeng in the eastern province of Anhui three days after his December 13 death by family members who said interment was his "dying wish", the state-run China Daily reported.

When they learnt of the burial, local officials demanded that the family dig up Cheng's body and cremate it, the paper reported. Relatives ignored the order and the officials, along with police and firefighters, dug up Cheng's coffin, poured petrol on it and ignited it.

"They wouldn't let us get near," Cheng's daughter Cheng Yinzhu told Anhui TV station, which also aired footage of police and villagers confronting each other after the forced cremation.

Since the 1950s China has called for most city residents to be cremated and in 2012 the national cremation rate was 49.5 percent, the China Daily reported.

Some cities have also begun offering bonuses for families who scatter their loved ones' ashes at sea.

Earlier this month the State Council, or cabinet, and the Communist Party's Central Committee ordered party members and officials to "set an example with simple, civilised funerals" and choose cremation whenever possible.

Yet traditional burials remain popular among many Chinese, with land in some cemeteries reaching tens of thousands of US dollars per half-metre plot.

Chinese law does not make clear what the penalty is for those who flout orders to cremate their loved ones' remains, the China Daily noted. The State Council last year abolished a rule allowing for forced cremation but did not replace it with any other policy.

500 local Chinese lawmakers resign in fraud scandalHong Kong Dec 28, 2013
More than 500 municipal lawmakers in one Chinese province have stood down following an electoral fraud scandal, as Beijing ramps up its sweeping anti-corruption crackdown, state media reported Saturday.
The 512 municipal officials in China's central Hunan province resigned, were disqualified or dismissed after being caught taking bribes from 56 representatives of the provincial People's Cong ... read more

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